I'm sure that Nokia is a bigger more popular tech giant than HTC and today's biggest buzz was Nokia's first android devices... I just can't help thinking why anandtech deliberately overlooks Nokia...Reply

Nokia *was* a bigger, more popular tech giant. I don't think they are selling more *smartphones* (those that Anandtech cares about) than HTC now. And that's with HTC tanking. Android + iOS combined for 95.7% of all smartphone sales in Q4/13. So despite the annoyingly vocal Microsoft fanboys, Windows Phone doesn't matter at this point.And the X phone by Motorola is D.O.A. I'm still baffled that MS let them ship it, seems to be a giant middle finger from Espoo to Redmond.Reply

It is kind of sad as some brands are being killed off by Apple and Samsung. Its kind of like the PC era of the 80s in which there were several dozens of incompatible PCs (Atari, Commodore, Apple, Mac, IBMPC, TRS80, Ti/99, Sinclair, Z80s etc) which reduce to a handful by 1990~92.

I just needed to replace my phone with a new one. The Blackberry Z10 is beautiful, feels great - but is obviously kind of slow and its a dying platform. Salesman laughed when I asked about NOKIA sales. Its really too bad that Nokia doesn't make Android phones with Lumia hardware. The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a beautiful phone, its camera is unmatched by ANY other phone on the market - not even the Samsung S4-Zoom, which has good optics but makes for a horrible phone.But I, like many others do not LIKE Windows8 and sure don't want a Windows8 phone!

I thought the Moto X was going to do very well, it has great reviews (Especially this site), it feels great in the hand. It looks great, with its large selection of colors. Which I'd admit, you could spend a lot of time playing with the color tools to order the phone.

At&t only has the HTC ONE & mini, a few LGs, a few Nokias, several Samsungs and the iPhone line. I don't care for all the junk on Samsung and can't stand the cheap plastic feel. Other than the expensive huge FLEX, the older LGs also use cheap plastic and the controls feel strange. HTC is old with weak battery compared to newer phones. I really don't care for these HUGE phones on the market. The HTC mini is really flimsy and cheap and the Galaxy S-Mini is really older-tech with newer body style.

Even thou the MOTO X has a weak camera in some ways (best from Motorola so far), that is what I went with. I chose my own color design that will stand out from all the black or white phones on the market. (Yeah, it took me over an hour to settle on my choices) I even considered putting the printed label on the back "SAMSUNG" or "iPhone " and "iPhone Suck Balls" for laughs. It doesn't have the 5~5.5" screens of most of todays phones - but its 4.7" display and thin body feels great to hold, its well balanced and I can tell instantly if its upside down. I hope the MOTO X2 was out (if it does), but I couldn't wait.

What sucks on ALL NEW Android phones is the horrible Google Maps 7.x. Its functionally useless (but looks pretty). It missing features, its NAV doesn't work very well, it takes far more clicks to get to where you need to go - if its there at all. For example, if you detour off the route, it'll keep trying to get YOU back to the original path, rather than adjust for the detour. No map saves. No street names, or you can't see them... the 3D building looks are pretty, but means nothing with a useless MAP function. Thank god there are tricks to installing 6.14(hacked) along side of 7. Hopefully Google will get their heads out of their butts and fix it with version 8.Reply

I know some people either hate contracts or use providers other than AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile, but for me these 'midrange' phones couldn't be less interesting. I use my phone for an hour+ per day, so the hardware cost per hour/day of use is extremely low. Saving less than $200 in the contract paradigm or even $300+ in the no contract world doesn't seem worthwhile with how important a phone is day-to-day for most people.Reply

A General Note:Joshua: You're a recent arrival to AT & we now get to witness your mettle under short-form rapid-fire conditions. (You've certainly been no slouch so far!) Best Wishes To You!

More generally on topic:I confess to some degree of confused amazement over the failure of ANY mfg. except HTC to implement dual/stereo front firing speakers. Sure, physics inarguably limits what can be realized in such a small form factor, & I get cost/benefit, etc. But when this feature was introduced on the One, I thought the industry would experience a collective moment of, "How could I/we have conceivably EVER missed this!" While maybe not everyone's 1st priority, sound quality does matter & I just really don't get HTC's exclusivity here.

Re: HTC:I've had positive experiences with HTC in years past & I wish them well in achieving a focused, well reasoned future path. While I freely acknowledge their seemingly directionless, mumbling shuffle around some corners of the room in the more recent past, I still consider the HTC One to be one of the finest (if not the absolute finest) phones ever to be designed & commercially released; even while allowing for it's arguably significant shortcomings (Ultra-Pixel execution, etc.).

HTC's history boasts a number of exceptionally innovative (honest usage of "innovate": no gratuitous "buzz word de jour" usages allowed!) ... innovative approaches & industry achievements. Consumers & the broader market can only benefit from the technological progress driven through participation of strong competitors. Here's hoping HTC is one of them!Reply

Besides the occasional speakerphone use... what is the point for a manufacturer to waste cost on the speaker in a phone? It will NEVER be better than even a $10 pair of earbuds, let alone the nicer headphones out there. Better to spend that money on a nicer DAC inside the phone.Reply

I think Lenovo were shopping around for an ailing but strong consumer brand (seeing as they tried Nokia and Blackberry before settling for Moto) and to be honest HTC's branding was, is and continues to be a horrible mess not worth buying.Reply